Odds are, there’s life outside of Earth. The government knows this, scientists know this. So why do so many people argue that extrasolar life is science fiction?

Our galaxy alone consists of 100 billion stars. That’s the Milky Way. Scientists estimate there are somewhere around 200 billion galaxies in the “obesrvable universe.” Not even including the unobservable universe, or the theory of multiple universes, that’s like a living hyperbole. For argument’s sake, let’s assume the Milky Way is an average sized galaxy. That means there are 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe.

We also know that our Sun is not the only star with a planetary system. Scientists have confirmed that there are planets orbiting at least 129 other stars. And our knowledge here is extremely limited. There are surely countless more among the billions of un-studied stars. Among these potential billions of planets, there must be thousands if not millions of planets with the requirements of life (ie. carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, habitable atmospheric temperature, safe distance from the host star, etc).

Earth is not unique. We are relatively insignificant in the greater universe. We are not special. We are not alone. They are watching us. They will show up on our doorsteps.